Ironman 70.3 - Branson

So these were from my first attempt at action / sports. Spent about 4 hours shooting a couple thousand shots of riders only to find my results netted very few sharp images. These were probably the best of the best. Taken with a T4i & 70-300mm. PP in LR4. Comments welcome!

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/20312055@N06/8​062242413/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/20312055@N06/8​062241073/

Good shots

Did you feel the 70-300 was not fast enough and thats why you had very few sharp images?

I think the equipment was more capable than the operator.

Here is a representative shot. Some were a little sharper; many were much worse. I'm thinking focus and DOF were my biggest problems?

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/20312055@N06/8​062461232/

IMAGE IS A REDIRECT OR MISSING! HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Nice work on the first two shots. I race against those MKV guys a lot in USAC stuff.

Yeah, that last one's suffering from a slightly missed pan. Maybe focus too though, manual point selection, or auto?

Do you have any with the EXIF data still in the file? maybe just post a small one directly here instead of linking through flickr. I don't think your screen capture shows which focus point was active anyway.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #15095709
Do you have any with the EXIF data still in the file? maybe just post a small one directly here instead of linking through flickr. I don't think your screen capture shows which focus point was active anyway.

Flickr Exif available by following the link to the image -> Actions -> View Exif Info

waterrockets wrote in post #15095505
Nice work on the first two shots. I race against those MKV guys a lot in USAC stuff.

Yeah, that last one's suffering from a slightly missed pan. Maybe focus too though, manual point selection, or auto?

That's cool. I had a great time shooting. I see they have another 70.3 in Austin this month. Tempted to go give it another try. It is about 6 hours for me but we've been wanting to do a weekender there.

I was definitely trying to pan. Some off the tripod, some handheld. Not sure exactly what you mean by "missed pan"? For the 3rd & less than ideal image the AF mode was servo & auto point selection. Not sure how to distinguish which point was active. I just assumed the center. Thanks for your input.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #15095709
Do you have any with the EXIF data still in the file? maybe just post a small one directly here instead of linking through flickr. I don't think your screen capture shows which focus point was active anyway.

I had it set on auto point selection for that particular shot. Is there a way I can determine the active focus point? Thanks!

"Missed pan" would mean that your focus point didn't stay on exactly the same point on the subject during the entire exposure. That causes unwanted motion blur (vs. the intended motion blur in the background and spokes). I think that you didn't quite have the follow nailed on this one on this panning shot. When you nail it, it's a "great pan" (just a clarification on the "pan" term).

Don't pan with a tripod. That requires your eye to travel in a circle around the axis of your tripod. Read about the technique (here's a start), then go practice at a local bike path or on a street.

Read your manual to manually set the active focus point in one of the manual/creative modes (P,M,Tv,Av). It is worth it to learn -- practice a lot before an important event!

You can see which point was active if you shoot in RAW and view in Canon Digital Photo Professional.

Thanks waterrockets for all the feedback and suggestions. I think you are probably correct; and in that case I "missed" a ton of pans. Too bad cause I would like to have shared with the riders. Probably got most of their pictures. Time to bone up on technique and practice...

When I first started panning bicycles, I gave up after a few shots b/c I wanted a higher keeper rate, and went to 1/2000 shutter. Then I got home and saw the pictures. Frozen wheels make boring photos, so just recording the moment wasn't enough to make a "keeper." Now I take more risks, and I miss a lot, but the keepers are much better.

Keep at it.

Tip: If you're new to panning and have a monopod ... leave the monopod attached to the camera, but collapsed so it acts as a counter balance to smooth out your motions. It works! Keeps the little jittery motion of the camera to a minimum.

Thanks! Cool idea.

like the first two a lot